What's with the racism?

Some of the comments made about various races/nationalities of ppl on the "What's with the agression?" thread are spectacularly narrow minded and stupid. Those I'm refering to know who they are (esp. "aussie") and should hang their heads in shame. I don't care where you've been or what you've seen, you have no excuse. WE ARE ALL INDIVIDUALS and deserve to be taken on our INDIVIDUAL merits and NOT our race, colour, creed, sexual preference, ect. And don't give us that 9 times out of 10 bullshit. Even if that's true the other 1 person out of 10 deserves more respect than you're giving him.

agreed. Generalisations suck.
Unfortunately, whenever we have threads about cokeheads / aggro people / violence in the community, people will tend to generalize.

yeah good call.
it's way embarrassing because we all bitch about the generalisation that australians are racist fucks. now i tend to understand why this generalisation is made.
i think i understand better how pauline hanson got into parliament.

Good thread astrayalian...
The biggest think I hate is not being treated as a individual first and foremost.
A lot of people who post hear are likely to be fairly young, and therefore their experiences will be limited. They may not have had the opportunity to meet people of other races who are "nice", so it is somewhat understandable that they are going to be naive in their outlook of the world.
Not just blaming youth for those attitudes though!
Basically the human ego is a bitch! People love to blame others for their problems, and love to feel good about themselves (and the easiest way to do this is to look down on others). It's always black and white with them (no joke intended!), if the other group isn't "wrong" then they must be, so they find ways to look down on those who are different!
Just like there are plenty of men who hate women, and women who hate men, racists seem to like generalising as they want to hate others to feel better about themselves.
It's pathetic, but the human race has always sucked, and always will!
I don't hate racists (well try not to), because clearly they are braindamaged
Try having a logical conversation with someone who is racist... you can't because their thoughts don't follow logic!

i find it ironic that ppl who try not to be racist, usually end up sounding like one.
its almost like a subconcious guilt... meeting randoms at parties and having a conversation start off with "im not trying to put u down, i have the utmost respect for <insert generic race> rah rah rah"
some people try TOO HARD to be non-racist... racism is not just about aggression/discontentment/hatred between races... bottomline, its about DISTINCTIONS and SEGREGATIONS.
as much as someone is not a racist but if there is a difference in his/her eyes, there will all always be a cultural gulf there.
i hope this psot makes sense... i might not be explaining it as well as i should/can
:D

Let's face it a dickhead is a dickhead whether the be black/white, yellow, blue, red or whatever. Every race has dickheads, racism just takes this one step further by stating the whole race consists of dickheads, which of course is a massive generalisation and smokes much cock!
cokeheadz on the other hand are nasty little buggers, with mummy fuckin problems and hairy shoulders (yes it is a generalisation, but i just wanted to pay cokeheadz out)
astrayalien i think i did too much meth on the weekend every time i look at your name i think i see an h changing your name to ashtrayalien, it's really quite funny. (no offence, except for my boss who is a turd sucking, cock smoking, ram rooter!)

I agree with Vurt...
Making any distinction at all is a problem...
Quite a few people who have a grudge against certain members of a certain race aren't making things any better by identifying that race as the aggressor... It's not the race that caused whatever hurt which was inflicted, its the stupid neanderthal insecure sub-humans who did it, race should be irrelevant, and the fact of making it relevant makes the whole racial issue worse.
Did anyone see that South Park episode where they wanted to change the South Park flag? The one where the kids didn't see the distinction between the black and white figures on the flag? ...That's the point I'm trying to get at here...

i second what vurt has said, but i have something of my own to add...
some racism is unavoidable... namely due to religions, some people are brought up hating another race of people, and will never question why... examples are obvious.
generalisations, statistics, etc certainly are a problem... but what can we do about them? they're an unavoidable part of human nature. after september 11, can anyone else imagine many americans developing blindly racist views against anyone from afghanistan? it's a generalisation, and it's unavoidable
racism is a problem. but there's nothing we can do about it, as it's rooted in our lives, our societies and our religions.
eh, that's my 2c.

apollo: On a large scale you're probably right, but on a smaller scale you're wrong... We can do something about it, even if its only to change the way we each think and behave... Anyone has the ability to make some pretty big changes if they have enough drive to do so... We don't have to accept that things are the way they are and will never change, we can make them change...
We can treat everyone equally unless they prove they don't deserve it, we can be civil to everyone regardless of what they look like, we can pass this ideal onto everyone around us, especially our kids...
*gets off his milk crate* (I don't have a soapbox... Got plenty of milk crates tho...)

Agreed, I was a bit out of line with those comments but lets not fool ourselves - a lot of the gang trouble is caused by ethnicity. In fact all the fucking trouble in the world is caused by ethnicity!! I also hate the white caucasians that cause trouble to. In fact I am not racist towards particular races/religions, but rather I am racist towards the SCUM elements of each.

I don't respect anyone until they respect me, our country, and our laws.

Well said Tars.
Change begins at home.
It's very hard to avoid generalisation, but making an effort to do it especially regarding race and religion will make you a much better person to be around.

I honestly thought your tongue was firmly in cheek aussie. You're either very good at the game or very bad at it. I'm still undecided.

being a racist is like me declaring myself to be a pant-ist cos i was attacked by someone wearing pants and henceforth, im just gonna fear/hate every person who wears them. when u push the analogy to such an extreme, i think it kinda makes racism ludicrous.
we cant avoid generalisation, its how we learn, how we make our way in society, it governs how we interact with each other.
in all honesty, just as we as individuals do not like to be stereotyped and we're not suppose to do the same to others, stereotypes help us know what to expect and react not just to people but society as a whole.
we NEED these "definitions", us as a race have been seeking a lexicon for social interaction all our lives, its just us on an animal level, its a behavioural/survival instinct, hardwired.
but we have to be prepared for the unexpected too.
always give people the benefit of the doubt and innocent until proven guilty, as the cliches go.
its not that difficult to give someone a chance, and do yourselves a favour and know another human being... and if that doesnt work out, walk on by, what has any of us lost?
to close ourselves off from another human, because of race, is denying ourselves the ability to grow and appreciate life.
we are now 2 years into the 21st century... do we need a mass alien invasion a la independence day to pull the human race together?
my apologies if this post sounds almost plur-ish

Ok i want to firstly state that i am not racist but Racism is a great Australian tradition, but i do not agree with it.

I don't respect anyone until they respect me, our country, and our laws.
Now i do agree with this.

Click to expand...

Our country!!!. Why do all I'm not racist but peeps insist on constructing 'us vs them' arguments.

Word to Tars on that South Park episode. I'm gunna go find out which episode number it was because it's possibly the best way I've ever seen the whole racism issue addressed...
{edit}
OK - it's episode 408... go download it from somewhere and watch it...
[ 13 March 2002: Message edited by: Pleonastic ]

BRING ON THE PLUR!!.. plur...baby...plur!!!...
ps: sorry bout the caps ;-P